


Sick Days Left:∞

by Emby



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Child Neglect, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Protective Severus Snape, Sick Harry Potter, Sickfic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-17
Updated: 2020-01-17
Packaged: 2021-02-27 15:48:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,069
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22289677
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Emby/pseuds/Emby
Summary: He's never been sick before so why is everyone telling him he's sick?
Relationships: Harry Potter & Severus Snape, Poppy Pomfrey/Severus Snape (Implied)
Comments: 3
Kudos: 418





	Sick Days Left:∞

Harry stays in bed longer than he knows he's supposed to. It's the second week already but he's still so excited about magic. Today they get to make their first actual potion and do real wand work! 

His excitement however is dampened by the roil of his stomach and the overall ache in his body. Someone nudges him and he cracks his eye open to see Ron hovering in front of him. “You looked really tired so I thought we should let you sleep." 

Harry grunts snaking his hand out of the blankets to give his friend a thumbs up. He’s about to go back to sleep but Ron is still talking. 

"But you have to get ready soon lessons are starting in half an hour." Ron leaves and Harry thinks about getting up for the day but he the room wobbles a little bit and a bad taste in his mouth make him want to throw up.

But he's not sick he just doesn't feel well but he's not sick, he never gets sick. 

He sits up in his bed, hoping that he doesn't smell too bad because he doesn't think he can stand up in the steamy shower for too long. 

In his first class, more accurately all his classes, he falls asleep at his desk. He gets away with it too until he's in potions. 

The class barely sits down before Professor Snape address them, "I trust you all have read the assigned texts from last week, you should be able to construct this salve without mucking it up too much. You may begin." 

They have an hour and a half to create the base of a burn salve. He leaves them to their work strolling through the classroom checking in on their progress.

Harry sits for a moment head swimming trying to remember what he'd read that week. Because he did read and contrary to popular belief he was good at potions. It was kinda like cooking (Which Harry was no stranger to).

Right it's a type of healing potion, it's simple. Lizard, starfish, axolotl? For the regeneration but there’s a magical ingredient that works better right? 

He's probably not doing a very good job at pretending to be ok, Hermione keeps glancing over at him and pausing her work. He organizes his ingredients in the order they need to be added before he starts cutting them. But his hands are beginning to shake.  
Harry rests his head on the table, his hands in his lap and doesn’t move for a while. He's positive if he moves he's going to die. His nose is clogged, his stomach hurts, his whole body just hurts. He wants to cry but he thinks even that is going to hurt.

He gathers himself and begins to cut again slowly and steadily, pausing every time his hands start shaking again. 

"Harry-" he startles when Hermione touches his shoulder and slices into his finger. The pain turns his stomach and can’t suppress the immediate nausea and vomits. 

On the floor thankfully and not into his ingredients, but the damage is done. Students around him raise a cry in disgust before he casts a quick scourgify a spell that makes Professor Snape's eyebrows lift. 

The Professor had been watching Potter for the duration of the class, his unhealthy pallor alarming him. When the boy rests his head on the desk for the first time, he doesn’t scold him. But Harry retching confirms what he already knew. 

"Mr. Potter, why did you think that it would be acceptable to go to classes when you're sick? 

"I'm not sick." The boy is quick to say as he staggers to his feet. 

"Harry, you just puked all over the floor, You're shaking."

I'm not sick!" His head whips to the Granger girl and Snape has to stop himself from stabilizing Harry as he sways.

Harry grabs at the table as his vision doubles for a moment. He wasn't allowed to be sick, being sick meant that he'd be locked in the cupboard until he was better. He wasn’t at Privet Drive now though, but he can’t help thinking as if he were. 

"It's not allowed." Harry says emphatically his eyes darting around as searching for something. If Snape thought anything of that sentence his face doesn't show it. 

“Harry, it's ok to be sick.”  
“I'm not sick.” he repeats glaring at Hermione. 

“So it wasn't you who just retched on my floor?” Snape doesn’t wait for an answer before turning to the rest of the class. 

“Class is dismissed, Mr. Potter come with me.” Harry doesn’t move after sitting heavily on his stool. Hermionie and Ron stand at his side like useless worried parents.  
“Mr. Weasley and Ms. Granger, unless you want me to take an unspeakable amount of points from Gryffindor you will leave.” He’s not surprised to see their hesitation but they leave no doubt their opinions of him sink lower. 

He looks down at the boy whose cheeks are flushed and eyes glassy. Harry wobbles in his seat with a deathgrip on the desk “You have Medeis flu.” Snape mutters under his breath. 

The words mean nothing to Harry, He has no clue what it means only that Snape talking is sending pins of agony to his brain. "Please sir.." The Professor spares him no mercy

"What, did you think your fame makes you immune to common illnesses? Maybe now it'll get through your thick skull that you're nothing special." To Snape's surprise or rather disbelief, Harry starts to cry. No doubt a play for sympathy. 

Harry doesn't know why this makes him cry he hears it all the time, maybe it's because he was hoping that people here wouldn't treat him the same as the Dursleys that maybe he wasn't everything awful the Dursleys said he is.. 

Severus, I was gone for just a moment what did you do to him?" Poppy comes bustling in drying Harry's face with a handkerchief and he scoffs in disgust. He can have the rest of the staff fooled but not him. 

"Minerva is out on an errand and has asked me to watch over her griffins." She huffs "Well stay out of my way severus can't have you making my patients cry." 

Severus gladly takes a step back, the crying child making him uncomfortable. 

She runs a diagnostic on Harry the worried crease in her brow getting more prominent the longer the quill scribbles on paper..

"Oh you poor thing." She whispers as she caresses the boy's cheek. She glances at Severus. “Please tell me you’ve restocked the medical potions.” She stresses. 

“Most of them but not everything, there are some still brewing.” “At least tell me you have nutrient potions?” 

“That’s the least necessary “ “Oh Merlin Severus I hope I have some on reserve.“ She bustles out of the room doesn't wait for an answer before leaving the room. 

Severus quite frankly is taken aback by her reaction. What is so wrong with Harry that she panics like this. He looks at the paper and quill which is still writing and he has to double take.

Malnourishment, multiple broken bones, contusions, concussions a perpetually depleted magical core. He's had none of his vaccinations which he was right about. But this was Harry Potter, the golden boy who had his family waiting on him hand and foot just like his wretched father. 

Not… not someone like him. 

Harry shifts in the bed struggling to get out. “Harry no, you’re sick.” 

“I’m not sick Uncle Vernon, it's not allowed.” If Harry thinks he’s back home, he might as well take this time to find out what actually goes on in that House. 

“That’s right, what happens if you’re sick.” If possible, Harry gets even paler. “I stay in the cupboard.” that gives Severus a pause “How long did you stay in there last time boy?” “Please Uncle Vernon, I’m not sick.” He’s shaking now struggling to untangle himself from the sheets. 

“How Long.” he presses guilt flowing through him in waves. “A week.” the boy squeaks finally untangling himself from the sheets but falling to the floor. “Harry-” he reaches for him and Harry flinches skittering out of reach. 

He staggers away stopping in confusion when he doesn’t recognize his surroundings. This isn’t the house he doesn’t know where he is. He whips back around squinting. “You’re not Uncle Vernon.” his stomach drops remembering what he had just revealed. 

Is it ethical to stun a child? He’ll have to face that moral conundrum later after Harry is better. 

Harry goes in and out of consciousness for the next few days, Severus and Poppy working around the clock to keep him well, alive. A healthy person getting a flu like this isn’t dangerous but Harry in his malnourished state needless to say it was more involved to get him better.

When the fever finally breaks its Poppy who is slumped by his bed wet cloth in hand.  
He wakes up long enough to be confused but not strong enough to roll out of the bed.  
As Severus rounds the corner into the room he turns right back around. Harry is awake sitting up in his bed. There’s not way he’s going to appreciate that his least favorite professor is there. The stress would not do anything good for his body. 

Its agonizing to wait till the boy can eat solid food again but he does have classes he needs to attend to and he’s not invested truly, he isn’t. That’s what he tells himself when he finds himself walking by the hospital wing. 

One morning as he’s passing by the hospital wing an arm reaches out and pulls him inside. “Severus, if you’re going to skulk around you might as well come in. Its annoying.” Poppy says mirthful laughter teasing at her lips. 

“I didn’t want to scare him.” the atmosphere sours and they look back at Harry who is talking animatedly with his two friends. “He’s doing better as you know, he should be able to go back to classes on Monday.” “Do go talk to him Severus, I think it would do both of you good.” 

He agrees squeezing her hand before letting go and heading to the bed. He will never admit out loud that his heart is beating rapidly in his chest. He’s nervous and absolutely does not want to screw up this moment.

The children quiet as they watch the professor approach their bodies shifting to shield Harry. 

“Would you two excuse us for a moment, I need to speak to Harry.” they glare at him but follow Madam Pomfrey as she bustles them away. 

“Good Morning Professor Snape.” Harry is first to speak manners on point as always and Severus wonders if its because of how he was raised but that’s a question for another day. 

“How are you feeling Harry? Tired, did you need any water?”  
The boy looks at him in aprehensive which understandable given how he’s treated the boy. “Harry, I’m sorry. You didn’t deserve to be treated the way I was treating you.” 

The absolute confusion on his face is heart wrenching.  
“Its ok?” 

“No Harry it’s not ok. You are a child and I am an adult taking out years old resentments on you and I’m Sorry.” 

Harry nods slowly at a loss for what to say looking more uncomfortable. He’s going to help this child for as long as it takes. 

“I do need to ask Harry, why didn’t you get your vaccinations?” he fidgets in his bed wringing the blankets in his hands. “You won’t get in trouble Harry I promise.” 

“They didn't want to, they said they didn't have the time.” More like they didn’t want to bother. He wasn’t their child and besides, Dudley had to get his vaccinations but his doctor was on the other side of the city. Taking them both was a waste of petrol. That’s just paraphrasing. 

“That’s no excuse Harry you should have been taken to the doctor your health matters, you matter.” 

He knows from experience that this lesson isn’t going to stick the first, second, or even third time. But as he stands from the seat by Harry’s bed he tells himself, he has 7 years to get through to him and from this moment on, he’s not going to waste a single second.

**Author's Note:**

> Why do I like the idea of Poppy and Severus being together? Anyway, find me on tumblr as: [ QualityQuill. ](https://QualityQuill.tumblr.com)  
> Started:11/2/19  
> Finished 1/17/20


End file.
